In his Viewpoints article for the Daily Gamecock, "Fogies forget college part of real world", Aaron Brazier says well what I have often said myself: college students are not by definition out of touch with the rest of the world. If anything, their learning experience makes them more aware of what's going on in the world, both past and present. College students are in a unique milleu that can spark the creation of a million interesting new ideas.

This subject is of particular interest to me because of something that happened shortly after I graduated from Sewanee. My roommate and my friends at that time - mostly fellow alumni - were a few years older than me. One good friend confided to me that another friend was starting a sort of salon for the discussion and the exchange of ideas. However, one requirement of membership was that you had to have been out of college for at least a year (maybe it was two, I can't recall exactly now). Of our group of friends, that excluded only me, so the guy starting the group had told my roommate and others not to tell me about the salon. I was angry when I found out, and thanked my friend for telling me anyway.

The rationale behind this requirement was that the founder only wanted people with a certain level of maturity in his group. I think the idea that a twenty-three-year-old is magically more mature than a twenty-one-year-old is just wrong. I was definitely more mature in my thoughts and actions at the time I graduated from college than I was two years later when I was living it up in the city, partying and going to movies and just generally looking for a good time while letting my brain atrophy.

As far as I know, this salon never really got off the ground. I felt somewhat justified by that. If the founder was going to exclude people with different perspectives, people whose minds had been freshly filled with knowledge, it couldn't have been much of a discussion group anyway.
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It's official: a recount has confirmed that Jim Rex will be South Carolina's next Superintendent of Education. I now feel a lot better about the idea of my son attending public school in this state. Hopefully, Rex is serious about implementing the reforms he talked about during his campaign.

One reform he did not mention, though, was consolidating some of the school districts to reduce administrative overhead. The idea was brought up again in this morning's editorial in The State. The paper has been a champion of district consolidation, but no politician has run with the idea: it would put too many people - likely the sort who can and will complain loudly - out of work. It's a rare politician who's willing to allow a short-term loss for a long-term gain.
education, politics
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It's finally happening: tonight, the University of South Carolina is playing the University of Southern California in basketball. That means it's not just USC vs. USC, it's the Cocks vs. the Trojans.
USC, sports
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John Edwards is touring around the country to promote his new book, HOME: The Blueprints of our Lives. This Sunday, November 19, he will be at the Happy Bookseller in Columbia for a book signing. I plan to be there, too. I regret not asking him to sign my copy of Four Trials despite the many opportunities I had to do so as a volunteer for his campaign. I'm not going to pass up this opportunity.
johnedwards,, politics
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